Nuvema Town

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• Choose your starter Pokémon

In your nice little home in Nuvema Town, we begin the game, accompanied by our friend Cheren. In front of us lies the beginning of our journey, a present from Professor Juniper. Bianca, arriving late to the scene, will come up the steps and join you as you prepare to set out upon your Pokemon journey. You may now choose your Pokemon. Go ahead, pick your favorite! For this guide I will be choosing the Fire-type Pokemon Tepig. Bianca will pick the next Pokemon, leaving Cheren to grab the Pokemon your starter is weak to.

We will begin the game by having our very first battle in your bedroom with Bianca. Strategy does not matter a lot here. You will be rewarded with 500 Pokedollars and some Exp. upon winning the battle.

• Rival Battle: Bianca and Cheren

Bianca

When the battle screen fades, your entire room becomes a mess from the battle! Cheren will now recover your Pokemon to full health and challenge you to a battle. The same applies here as did to the battle with Bianca; we don’t have to worry about type disadvantages at this point in the game. Your Pokemon will gain a level and you will be rewarded with 500 more Pokedollars!

Cheren

• The Pokédex and a Journey

With all of the battling out of the way we are free to venture into the downstairs room to have a chat with Mom, who will heal your Pokemon and send you on your way with an Xtransceiver to communicate with. Head outside and follow Bianca to her house in the southwest part of the town. Inside she will have an argument with her dad about setting out on a Pokemon adventure and then walk out of the house to wait in front of the lab with Cheren.

The Pokemon Lab is located in the northeast part of town, being the largest building. Speak with Cheren and then head inside for your lecture from Professor Juniper. You can choose to give a nickname to your starter and will be given the Pokedex to document all of the magnificent Pokemon you encounter in your travels of the vast Unova region! Head outside and you will meet your Mom again, who this time will give you the Town Map so you can view all of the Unova region. The map is located in the Key Items pocket of your bag. We will now head off to Route 1 to join our friends and Professor Juniper to officially embark upon our Pokemon journey! You will all take your very first step onto Route 1 together, marking the beginning of the events to come!

Route One

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• A Friendly Competition

Professor Juniper will greet you and tell you a little more about the Pokedex and demonstrate how to catch a Pokemon. After this tutorial, you will be presented with your very own Pokeballs that will allow you to catch and train your very own Wild Pokemon! Bianca will propose that you have a Pokemon catching competition as you make your way to Accumula Town. Get those Pokeballs ready! Talk to the girl in the grass patch on the right as you progress upwards and she will give you a potion to make sure that your Pokemon are healthy.

Once you cover the distance between Route 1 and Accumula Town, you will be confronted by Bianca and Cheren again. After conversing about how many Pokemon you caught, the Xtransceiver will begin ringing. Professor Juniper will let you all know that she has something important to tell you at the Pokemon Center in Accumula Town, so let’s get going!

Accumula Town

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• The First Town and Team Plasma

Upon arriving in Accumula Town, we want to head straight and speak to Professor Juniper at the entrance of the Pokemon Center on our right. She will give you a quick tour of the Pokemon Center, which contains all of the essentials for a trainer. First she will lead you up the counter straight ahead. This is where you can heal your Pokemon should they faint or get low on health. After healing your Pokemon, Professor Juniper will show you the PC, which you can use to store Pokemon and track your progress on the Pokedex. Neat, huh? After this Professor Juniper will introduce you to the Pokemart, where you can purchase many essentials for your journey! If you buy 10 Pokeballs in one visit you will be given a free Premier Ball. You can stock up on whatever items you need and head back outside.

After you get outside, you will stop and witness a scene in the town plaza where a large crowd has gathered. Ghetsis will step forward and introduce himself to the crowd as a member of Team Plasma, and explain they are focusing on the liberation of Pokemon. After the speech Ghetsis and the rest of his Team Plasma members will exit Accumula Town and the crowd will discuss amongst itself. After the crowd has dispersed, you will be approached by the one person left; he will engage you in a conversation. He will introduce himself as N and claim that Pokemon speak to him; a battle will follow.

• Trainer Battle: N

N

This battle with N is the first serious battle of the game, and his Purrloin will attempt to weaken your attack power with Growl and then defeat you by using Scratch. It is still a relatively easy battle, even though your Pokemon is likely at a level disadvantage if you didn’t train on any Wild Pokemon on Route 1. Upon his defeat, N will give a short statement and then walk away. Cheren will mention challenging the Gym Leader in the next city, which will be the next goal in our adventure! Enter the building just before Route 2 and head upstairs. Talk to the guy in this room and he will give you a Poke Ball he collected in his past as a Pokemon Trainer.

Route Two

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• A New Route and a Surprise Encounter

As we take our first few steps out into the Route 2, leaving Accumula Town behind, the Xtransceiver rings again. Your mom wants to know how you’ve been doing and tests out the Xtransceiver. After hanging up, your mom appears right behind you, coming from Accumula Town. She gives you the Running Shoes, which are going to be a big help in the adventures ahead. Walking around everywhere gets pretty slow and boring.

Following the path of the route, we will run into a potion in the first patch of grass and three relatively easy trainers. After beating the last trainer Youngster Roland, move to the right instead of exiting the Route. Walk up the stairs and down the path to find two items, a potion and a Poke Ball. Now we can move on. As you approach Striaton City, however, Bianca will stop you to test her new Pokemon’s skills.

This battle should be relatively easy for your Pokemon. Since your starter should have already learned its type move, there shouldn’t be a problem taking down the second Pokemon, and the first isn’t a challenge. After winning the battle you will be rewarded with 700 Poke and Bianca will make a comment about how strong you are as she makes her way back to Accumula Town. We are now free to take our adventure to Striaton City!

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Striaton City

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• Leader Absence and Item Schooling

Taking our first few steps into the peaceful Striaton City, we notice it’s the largest city we’ve entered so far. Heading left from the entrance, behind the fence, we will find an X Speed. Now, moving straight up from our starting point we encounter a Gym, but somebody is blocking the entrance. A quick conversation with this man lets us know that the Gym Leader is currently absent, but he advises that we check the Trainer’s School located on the far left of the city. If you took some damage during the trip, head on over to the Pokemon Center on our way, we’ve got a battle coming up. Before we make our way over to the Trainer’s School, though, we have a couple items to collect. Head along the path to the side of the buildings to the right of the entrance of the city. There is a guy back here who will give us a Dusk Ball. On the other side of this alley, in the very bottommost building, there is a man directly to the right as you enter that will give you a Great Ball.

Upon entering the school, we will see our friend Cheren at the head of the classroom, standing by the board. Talking to him will reveal he has apparently been studying the mechanics of Pokemon battling. Accepting his challenge to test his newfound items in battle will mark the next Rival battle in our journey.

For this battle Cheren will be using his starter first, so if you feel uncomfortable using the Pokemon he has a type advantage over, don’t lead with your starter. His Oshawott will use primarily Water Gun and Tail Whip, so you should be able to lower his stats or just attack him until Oshawott is down. The next Pokemon in is Purrloin, which is also level 8. The only real threat here is Assist. If you have your starter out, be wary of your HP because one Assist can lead to a Water Gun, which can make quick work of Tepig! Cheren will give you three Oran Berries for your own personal use. If you wish, you may give these items to your Pokemon or use it during or outside of battle. It will heal your Pokemon’s HP by 10 points.

If you wish, you may take a look around the Trainer’s School. The people located here will give you some advice on the mechanics of Pokemon battling. If you’re a beginner who is curious about the system, this may be worth your time. There is also a boy who will give you a quiz, and, if you pass, he will reward you with a Full Heal. Exiting the Trainer’s School, you will notice that the Gym Leader has taken the place of the man who blocked the entrance earlier. Speak with him and he will suggest going to the Dreamyard to train your Pokemon, and that’s just what we will do.

• Dreamyard and Elemental Monkeys

The Dreamyard is a small, serene place with a few trainers. We will meet our first challenger right upon entering the Dreamyard and moving forward. Her as well as the next trainer should both be relatively easy battles for your level. Ignoring the tree, since we can’t use Cut right now, proceed and talk to the girl at the end of the Dreamyard. She will offer you a Pokemon to cover your weakness, great! Now we can challenge the Striaton City Gym without having to worry about a weakness. After talking to her, pick up the X Defend found just to the northeast of her.

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Striaton Gym

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• Serving up the Trio Badge

If your Pokemon are not at least at level 13, then you might want to train a little bit. You can head back to Route 2 and fight some Wild Pokemon to boost your levels a bit if you aren’t confident about the Gym battle. When your Pokemon are a good level, take a trip up to the Striaton Gym.

Now we can take the next big step in our challenge –– the first Gym! Upon entering we will be greeted and offered a Fresh Water, which heals 50 HP during or outside of battle to your Pokemon. This Gym has a restaurant theme, classy! To open the curtains that block the rooms ahead, just step on the button that is the weakness of the symbol on the curtain. In this case, the order is Water, Grass, and Fire. There are two trainers on the way, and both should be pretty easy provided you are at a decent level.

After opening the last curtain and approaching the Gym Leader, you will be greeted with a surprise. From behind Cilan will emerge Chili and Cress, the other two gym leaders of this Gym! The type of your starter Pokemon will determine which one you fight. If you chose Tepig, you will fight the water-type user Cress. Oshawott will net you a battle with the grass-type user Cilan, and if you picked Snivy as your starter, a battle with the fire-type user Chili awaits. This is where the Pokemon you received from the Dreamyard comes in handy, as it will cover your weakness. You may want to lead with that Pokemon; you may also switch after defeating the first Pokemon.

Cress

Cilan

The very first Pokemon sent out will be the easy one. Lillipup shouldn’t be a challenge for your Pokemon if you trained them to a reasonable level. After doing away with Lillipup, your opponent will send out the Pokemon that counters your starter. You can put in the Pokemon you received from the Dreamyard or keep your starter. I suggest switching to the Pokemon you were given, unless your starter is at a pretty good level. Work Up will boost the opposing Pokemon’s attack and special attack, so watch out for those boosts. Other than Work Up, your opponent will mainly use it’s type move, which shouldn’t do much to you if you switched to the elemental monkey you were given.

After finishing off the Gym Leader, you will be rewarded with the Trio Badge and TM83 Work Up. If you are a veteran of the series, you know that traditionally TMs are a one-use item, but in this generation you may use TMs any number of times and they will never break, so teach whoever you feel like this TM! By obtaining the Trio Badge, you are recognized as having beaten the first Gym of the Pokemon League and Pokemon up to Level 20 will obey your every command. The first giant step in our journey to becoming a Pokemon Master is now complete!